GO up anyway!

How high can you go?

It’s sad to me to see how many people never go as high as they could.

One morning, after two full days of conference sessions, I went down to the hotel gym to get some exercise. To be honest, the workout itself was fairly uninspired. I’m spoiled by having great coaches tell me what to do , and that day I did enough to call it a win and not much more.

As is my habit when I stay in hotels, I headed for the stairwell to make the climb back up to my room. When I got to my floor, I paused and thought, Why not go to the top? I still had plenty of energy left after my underwhelming workout.

So I kept going. Not because I had to. I just wanted to, and I knew it would be good for me.

As I climbed, I thought about something John Maxwell had said multiple times during the event: the way to the top is uphill all the way. That is true in leadership, in growth, in faith, and in life. If you want to see what is possible, you have to climb!

Earl Nightingale used to encourage his listeners to go to the top because the air is cleaner up there. Well, that wasn’t true in this stairwell. :)

I had lost track of the floor numbers and did not even realize I had arrived at the top when suddenly a flashing light and a garbled recording interrupted my thoughts. The message was barely understandable through the cheap speaker, but after a second I realized what the monotone recording was saying:

“Emergency area. Please leave. Emergency area. Please leave.”

It was irritating enough to have its desired effect, so I did leave….

But as I started back down, the thought struck me:

Is this why so many people never go to the top in life?

Not because they lack ability.
Not because God has not given them gifts.
Not because there is no path upward.

But because somewhere along the way, they heard a message that made them think they were not supposed to go there.

Emergency area. Please leave.

Some people ask, “Why take the stairs when there’s an elevator?” Others think, “Why go higher when I’m already near my room, safe and comfortable?” And then there are the odd ducks who want to go to the top just because they can.

Let me be clear: I am not saying it is noble to walk up 40 flights of stairs if you have no desire or ability to do so. That is not the point.

The point is that many people would like to go higher. They want to grow. They want to become stronger, wiser, more disciplined, more faithful, more effective. They want to see how far they can go in the strength God gives them. But too often, whether from others or from the worry inside their own minds, they hear a message that says:

Don’t go there.
That’s not for you.
That’s too much.
Stay where it’s safe.
Please leave.

And many people obey that message for the rest of their lives.

May I be so bold as to offer you a new message:

Go up anyway.

What is stopping you? Fear? Anxiety? Comfort? Jesus said, “Do not be anxious” about your life, and then pointed His listeners to the birds of the air: “Your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:25–26). A few verses later He says, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34). That does not mean there are no responsibilities in life. It does mean we were not created to be ruled by fear.

Paul told Timothy, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). Fear tells you to shrink back. God calls you to step forward.

Maybe we do not need to obsess so much over the word potential that we never move. Maybe we do not need to stand at the bottom of the stairs conducting an endless seminar on what might be possible.

Maybe sometimes we just need to climb.

Go up anyway.
Even if it is hard.
Even if no one claps.
Even if the path is steep.
Even if comfortable people do not understand you.
Even if some voice, inside or outside, tells you that higher ground is not for the likes of you.

The only way to find out what kind of potential you have is to begin developing it. And potential is not developed in theory. It is developed in motion. It is developed in obedience. It is developed in effort. It is developed uphill.

Peter writes, “Make every effort” to add to your faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love (2 Peter 1:5–7). That is growth language. That is climbing language. It is uphill all the way.

I still love the word potential. I love the thought that there is more in you than you can currently see. I love the idea that God has planted seeds in people that, under His hand, can grow into something far stronger and more fruitful than they imagined.

But those seeds do not grow because we admire them. They grow because we cultivate them. Because we act. Because we trust God. Because we keep climbing.

So if you have been afraid that when you get to the top you will not be welcomed—if you fear that instead of hearing, “Well done,” you will hear, “Emergency area, please leave”—let me assure you: you are listening to the wrong voice.

So yes, out of respect for the Sheraton Dallas, I did leave.

But, Lord willing, I will be going to the top again in other places, maybe even again at the Sheraton Dallas.

And I hope you will too.